Ukraine-Russia war latest: Ukrainian troops 'still advancing in Russian region' - as Putin looks to 'shift responsibility' (2024)

Earlier today we reported more than 100,000 people had left Kursk following Ukraine's surprise invasion last week.

The number of those who have left or been evacuated has now gone up to 121,000, with another 59,000 in the process of beingevacuated, local officials said.

Ukrainian forces prepare to fire shells at Russian forces with a self-propelled howitzer in Ukraine's eastern separatist region of Donetsk.

Ukrainian-held parts of the Donetsk region regularly come under Russian shelling and air strikes.

Russian forces control a large part of the region, which Moscow claims along with four other Ukrainian regions as its own territory.

Two people were killed when Ukrainianforces shelled a bus with civilians in the Russian-held city ofLysychansk, Russia's state-owned TASS news agency said, citing Russian-appointed local authorities.

Russian-installed officials earlier said more than 30people had been wounded in today's attack in the Ukrainian city, which is located in the eastern region of Luhansk.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the allegations and the reports haven't been independently verified.

This video purports to show Russian forces clashing with Ukrainian troops inside the Kursk region.

Today marks the eighth day of the invasion of the border region by Kyiv.

A woman has died following "eight hours of [Russian] enemy attacks" in Ukraine's southeastern city of Kherson, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ten people were injured in the overnight attacks, including two girls aged five and seven, the local military administration said.

Footage of the shelling showing the aftermath of the strikes on residential buildings was shared by the military administration.

Kherson became the first major city to fall under Russian control when the invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022. But nine months later, Ukraine was able to regain control of the territory.

Russia has not commented on the reports.

Ukraine is not interested in "taking over" territory in Russia, its foreign ministry has said.

Spokesman Georgiy Tykhy also described Ukraine's week-old invasion of the Kursk area as "absolutely legitimate".

"Ukraine is not interested in taking over the territory of the Kursk region," he added.

Ukrainian forces stormed the region in a shock attack last week - Kyiv's first offensive action on Russian soil since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.

Mr Tykhy added: "The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace... the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defence forces into Russia will stop."

Russia, meanwhile, said it had "foiled" new Ukrainian attacks in Kursk, as its defence ministry said it had thwarted "attempts by enemy mobile groups in armoured vehicles to break through deep into Russian territory" around several villages - although this is unconfirmed.

Ukraine and Russia have made conflicting claims regarding how far Kyiv's forces have penetrated inside the Kursk region.

Russia's acting governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, said yesterday that Ukraine controlled 28 settlements in the region, and theincursion was about 12km deep and 40km wide.

Ukraine, on the other hand, claimed it controlled 1,000sq km of Russia - more than double what the figuresgiven by Mr Smirnov indicate.

It is still not clear who controls the key town of Sudzha.

The town is where Russia pumps gas from western Siberia through Ukraine and on to Slovakia and other European Union countries.

Russian majority state-owned energy comapny Gazprom said this morning it was still pumping gas to Ukraine through Sudzha.

Here's what the Institute for the Study of War has assessed regarding Ukrainian gains...

All eyes may be on the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk region, but Russia is still attempting to press ahead inside Ukraine itself.

Last week, former defence ministerSergei Shoigu - who has since been sidelined to the position of secretary of the Russian security council - claimed forces had seized some 420sq km of Ukrainian territory since mid-June.

For context, Mr Shoigu (when still defence minister) said in May that forces had taken 547sq km since January.

Much of that has been in Donetsk - where Moscow has seen steady advances in the region since the fall of Avdiivka in February.

Chasiv Yar

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces have now made advances to the north of Chasiv Yar - seen as a key city that could be the gateway to a more rapid advance in the region.

It's just west of Bakhmut - the site of a brutal months-long siege spearheaded by the Wagner mercenary group before its fall into Moscow's grasp in May last year.

Since then, the focus has been Chasiv Yar.

"Geolocated footage published on 5 August indicates that Russian forces advanced southeast of Hryhorivka," it said, noting an area which lies to north of Chasiv Yar

Meanwhile, fighting continues around the city itself - as well as to the northeast and southeast.

Ukraine made no mention of the fighting around Chasiv Yar in its general report this morning, but images shared by one of its brigades shows smoke rising from the now ruined city, and military bloggers continue to note brutal battles.

Pokrovsk

About 70km (43 miles) southwest of Chasiv Yar, the city of Pokrovsk is also seeing an increase in military activity (it's also highlighted on the map above).

Unlike with Chasiv Yar, Ukraine's military has noted intensifying fighting around the city - reporting the largest number of battles in the area in a single day in a week.

Russian forces are yet to take the city, with fighting centring some 20km (16 miles) away.

Moscow been trying to advance towards the logistics hub for months.

In its morning update, the Ukrainian military said there had been 52 battles around there in the past 24 hours - a third of all battles to take place across the entire front yesterday.

It also marks a significant increase on figures of between 28 and 42 per day that had been reported over the past week.

Ukraine last reported more than that in the first days of August, before Kyiv's forces launched their cross-border attack into Russia's Kursk region.

The Russian attacks in the last 24 hours were focused around the villages of Hrodivka and Zhelanne, located about 20km (16 miles) from Pokrovsk, the military said.

The city itself has been under aerial bombardment for some time.

A Ukrainian MP has said she is "sure" Ukraine's military command has "many surprises" left following the shock invasion of Russia's Kursk region.

Kira Rudik told Sky News that the offensive had been a "major surprise" for Vladimir Putin and his allies, adding that Ukraine aimed to show the world Russia "is not invincible".

Asked whether she feared Ukraine's potential shift from a defensive to an offensive position could put Western support at stake, Ms Rudik said: "We are using different instruments to make Russia stop the war.

"In two and a half years our Western partners were not able to put enough pressure on Russia for them to stop killing us, so we are doing what's in our hands to make sure that, at some point, Putin will decide to pull the troops."

These images show Russian forces advancing toward Ukrainian troops in an undisclosed location, according to the Russian defence ministry.

Members of the marine assault team are seen riding motorcycles and armoured vehicles, while a "Grad" self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher fires rockets toward Ukrainian positions.